The literary device that Gordimer employs in the excerpt is Imagery.
Imagery is a literary device used to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. Usually it is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that create visual representation of ideas in our minds.
After the Royal Japanese marines attacks on Pearl Harbor The US citizens felt panic, especially the West Coast resident, so reprisals were taken against the Japanese who lived in the western part of the country, in the states of California, Arizona, Oregon and Washington.
Concentration camps for Japanese in the United States accommodated some 120,000 people, mostly ethnic Japanese, more than half of whom were American and Japanese citizens from Latin America, mainly from Brazil and Peru, who were deported under pressure from the US government, in establishments designed for that purpose in the interior of the country, during 1942 and 1948.
The objective was to move them from their habitual residence, mostly on the west coast, to facilities built under extreme security measures. The fields were closed with barbed wire, guarded by armed guards, and located in places far from any population center. Attempts to leave the camp sometimes resulted in the dejection of the inmates.
For all of the above, American citizens of Japanese origin felt like prisoners of war, hostages of a situation they did not choose and in which they did not act.
The 8th amendment, I believe. i could be wrong
